Edge stepped back into his body and sprang into motion, making sure that no new threats had arrived during the handful of heartbeats he was away.

  He had been hoping to steal a third skill from the hedgehippo, but when he looked down at the monster whose blood was mingling with the rain, it was already dead—eyes wide and features twisted with fear.

  It was surreal to see such a horrified expression plastered on its hideous face. To grasp that this living nightmare known as a monster was afraid of him, and not the other way around.

  Shaking his head at the strangeness of it all, Edge summoned his Guide and opened his updates.

  For defeating a cored opponent stage 2 or above, you have earned 1 Mortium.

  The fight hadn’t been enough to cycle him up, which was what he’d expected, since the cycles were coming slower after reaching the middle of stage two. The next fight will probably do it.

  The creature didn’t have anything valuable to harvest, except for maybe its fangs. Edge pulled out the knife that Trapper had given him after saving her life, which was harder than steel and featured the sharpest blade he’d ever seen.

  He used the knife to extract the hippo’s fangs, then broke the ends off several quills and stored them in his pack—in case he found himself in need of an impromptu sewing needle. He adjusted the bulky bundle of parts and resources he had strapped to his backpack, which had grown so big that it was awkward to carry, then picked up his gear and got ready to resume his journey.

  Now that the fight was over and Edge had claimed his prize, all that was left was to check out his new upgrade. He ignited his core and activated Penetrate Foliage, eager find out what the skill could do.

  The effect was obvious the instant that the surrounding plants faded away. In addition to being able to see straight through the dense vegetation like it was made of lightly-tinted glass, the nearby animals glowed with a faint orange light that represented the heat radiating from their bodies. The beasts burned brighter thanks to their cores, and he could spot their yellow-orange signatures from quite a bit further away.

  Thermal vision wouldn’t be useful against every enemy or in unusually warm climates. But it should help him spot nearby critters faster and more reliably and counter several forms of stealth. He left the skill running while getting used to the changes, picked out his path, and started walking.

  As the rain cooled him off and washed the blood from his armor, Edge resumed his trek through the Sweltering Green. He was eager to rescue his friends and ready to join Puppet Town in its war against the Crimson Claws. I’m coming, guys. Hold on for just a little longer, then we’ll make those bastards pay for what they’ve done.

  A few hours later, he decided that it was time to find somewhere to hole up for the night. He had gained the ability to sense heat, but he couldn’t see in the dark unless the moon was full, and wandering through the jungle after the sun went down would be a short road to a painful demise.

  Edge summoned Foebinder, then had the chain pull him up to the level of the canopy, hanging on with his left hand while peering through his spyglass in his right. He didn’t see any hills nearby, so finding another cave was out of the question, but he eventually spotted a cluster of gigantic boulders nestled together like eggs in a nest. After analyzing the arrangement, he thought that there might be enough space between them for him to stretch out.

  He made his way over to the rocks, Concealing himself every now and again to remove any sign that he had passed through the area. By the time he drew near the stones, the shadows were growing long with the end of day. Cawing and croaking rode the late-evening breeze as the nocturnal denizens of the jungle awoke and began to prowl.

  When he came to a stop, he saw that the crack running between the boulders was too narrow for someone his size to pass through. Which was perfect, since Edge had another way of getting inside. He activated Shadow Step, transforming into living shadows that were far more malleable than flesh and bone, along with the gear he was carrying.

  The world softened as the colors faded away—a side effect of the skill that made it look like everything other than his own body was made of mist. He flowed through the gap until he reached a wider area where two concave facets of the stones came together, just as he’d been hoping.

  It was a bit cramped in here, but after activating Conceal one last time to erase his trail, nothing should be able find him. Even if they did, most beasts and monsters couldn’t reach him, and Shadow Step would let him beat a hasty retreat if needed.

  He still had a tiny amount of scent-erasing ointment, so he used the last of it now, adding another layer of stealth to the mix. Since Edge was as safe as he was likely to be for quite some time to come, he decided to engrave the spatial storage rune onto his core—a process that would leave him without the use of his skills until it was complete.

  Before he got started, he ate some fruit that he’d picked while hanging from the branches, then drained the waterskin that Byron had given him to replace his broken canteen. Then he took out the slip of paper that had come with the item and reread it while he ate dinner.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  You have acquired a runic reward.

  Rune of Spatial Storage (Epic).

  Strain: High (3 implant points).

  Binding this rune will create a Spatial Storage Vault within your body that can be accessed at will. The dimensions of the chamber total 5,000 cubic feet, and its maximum load is 2,000 pounds. Storing and retrieving items from the vault will drain a small amount of mana.

  This rune comes with a paired Engraving Kit.

  Be advised: The engraving process will take several hours to complete, and you will be unable to use skills during that time.

  The rush that always came over Edge when acquiring a major upgrade electrified every cell in his body when he read the word “Epic.”

  As far as he knew, only cores, skills, implants, and runes were graded by rarity, and an Epic rune was better than anything he had ever heard of. While he braced himself for what he suspected would be a painful procedure, he reviewed what little he knew about runes in general and core runes in particular.

  Runic magic predated the rise of magitech. Crafting runes required rare resources and was incredibly labor-intensive—to the point that their fabrication had become something of a lost art over the last century.

  Most runes were bound to physical items—like the Frostfury Medallion he’d found inside the sealed chest while exploring the Savage Garden. Like magitech implants, runic items had to be bound to their user’s magical system to receive their benefits, although doing so was less invasive than having a device surgically installed inside your body. While it was possible to break a runic bond, doing so would permanently destroy the linked item—another reason why runic gear was seldom seen anymore.

  What Edge had found was far rarer than that.

  His Spatial Storage Rune wasn’t a runic item; it was a core rune. Core runes were more like implants than runic gear, with several major differences. Most implants, such as his Heart-Guard, generated their effect by drawing on an internal reservoir of distilled mana—a substance known as aether. Once their supply of aether was expended, implants had to be refilled at an appropriate facility before they could be used again.

  Like implants, installing core runes required a surgical procedure, which engraved them upon the user’s core itself. In addition to being a permanent process, carving a core rune normally came with an element of risk. If the engraver made a mistake, it could weaken or destroy the rune, causing permanent damage and wasting those implant points forever.

  The only exception was when the System offered core runes as rewards that included a paired Engraving Kit. The kit would install the rune with no chance of failure, although it was still a permanent procedure.

  Edge realized that he was lore dumping as a stalling tactic. Not so much because of the prospect of pain, since suffering was an old friend to him by now. But because as good as the Spatial Storage Rune was, and it was really fucking good, it would become part of him forever and take up half his implant points all by itself.

  But he had never heard of someone with any form of spatial storage who couldn’t use rank-six skills. He already had several ideas about how he could use it, on top of the obvious benefit of being able to carry a ton of gear or beast parts without having to haul the load on his back.

  “Fuck it.” Edge took off his leather armor, removed his shirt, and pulled the rune and Engraving Kit out of his backpack.

  The kit was a small box carved from polished green stone. All he had to do was put the rune inside, then press the kit against his chest near his core. The rune itself was beautiful—a collection of metallic threads trapped in clear crystal. It was woven from bands of copper, silver, and gold, along with glistening metals that he couldn’t even begin to identify.

  He ran his fingertips across the rune that was worth a considerable fortune. Then he opened the kit, placed the rune inside, and took a deep breath.

  He set the surface against his skin, just below his heart. For a solitary second longer, nothing happened. Then he felt a powerful jolt of electricity, accompanied by a sharp, stabbing pain. Without further warning, Edge was drawn inside his core—where the real show was about to begin.

  He found himself standing in his inner world, surrounded by the artifacts from his father’s workshop that now filled his central chamber. He was still getting used to the changes, but that wasn’t why he was here. By this point, a burning sensation had blossomed across his chest, and he could feel foreign energy conducting along the surface of his core.

  Following the strange sensation, he turned to face one of the walls—a wide swath of brickwork with nothing else nearby. When he placed his hand against it, the masonry was burning hot, like someone had set a flamethrower to the far side. The pain rapidly intensified, forming a searing streak of agony that only endured for a fraction of a second.

  As Edge fought against the urge to scream, he looked up to where a thick line of gold was now drawn across the wall. Another flash of suffering ensued, and when it faded, a branching band of silver was embedded beside the gold. The process continued line by line. With each burst of sensation, the strange creation grew more complex.

  This gleaming arrangement of metallic swaths was beautiful, and he soon realized that it was the same shape as the rune inside the Engraving Kit. He had thought the name was a metaphor, but the System was literally inserting the Spatial Storage Rune into the surface of his core. While the procedure was intensely unpleasant, it was fascinating to have a front row seat to a form of magic that he’d never seen before.

  The process must have only taken a couple of minutes, but thanks to the time dilation inside his core, it took a subjective half hour to complete. The pain was intense but vanished almost as quickly as it came. And since he had a way of tracking the engraving’s progress, dealing with the discomfort wasn’t too bad.

  The instant the last line was complete, the rune started to shine, drawing mana from his reactor at a slow, steady pace. It was only using a fraction of his current Generation, so he wasn’t too worried about the drain. When the core rune was fully charged, something unexpected happened. In the center of the dazzling array, a doorway wavered into being.

  It wasn’t anything like the black door that led to Skill-Eater. Instead, this circular portal looked like the entrance to a vault—formed of palm-wide steel with two fist-thick hinges mounted to one side.

  Intensely curious to find out what was on the other side, Edge opened the door… only to discover an empty room. Other than a mage light hanging from the ceiling, the space was completely bare.

  For a second, he had no idea what he was looking at, but then he realized that the dimensions of the vault were the exact same size listed in the description of the rune.

  This is the interior of my spatial storage, he realized. I can access it directly while I’m in my inner world. Let’s see what happens when I place something inside.